Leaning into her tuktuk, Eang Chakriya opens a cooler and takes out fresh vegetables that have been carefully packed and chilled, showing them to a group of neighbors to purchase.

UC Davis researchers invented a low-cost, easy-to-use tool that farmers can use to measure food dryness to improve food safety and quality, called the DryCard.

As student manager of the Trellis Fund, Elyssa Lewis writes experiences and impacts from this program that matches graduate students to organizations in developing countries for short-term horticulture projects.

What is the role of trust in our food system? It can be easy to forget that trust is a critical first step in many agricultural relationships. Establishing trust between actors in a food system has been critical for a project in Cambodia focused on increasing availability of safe vegetables for Cambodian consumers.

The Horticulture Innovation Lab invites organizations in developing countries to compete for new Trellis Fund grants up to $4,000 each for 6-month projects, to extend horticultural information to local farmers and stakeholders along fruit or vegetable value chains.

“Reducing food losses and waste: Sustainable solutions for Africa” is the theme of the first All Africa Post Harvest Congress and Exhibition. The conference will be March 28-31 in Nairobi, Kenya. The event will address aspects of postharvest management related to perishable crops, perishable animal products, non-perishable food commodities, capacity development, and related social issues that affect postharvest management.

The Horticulture Innovation Lab team has selected nine graduate students to support Trellis Fund projects in Africa and Asia in 2017. Through their work on the Trellis Fund projects, the graduate students will apply their agricultural expertise to support local organizations as they work together to help smallholder farmers better grow fruits and vegetables.

Kate Scow, UC Davis soil science professor, is one of the featured speakers for the “United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Conference at UC Davis in January 2017.